Hi there! Despite the warm front that we've been suffering through, we managed to transform our home into a festive Christmas wonderland! ;) Actually, the warm weather has just made it that much more important to get our home looking and feeling festive. I am probably very alone in this stance, but I really don't care for this weather!!! I know, I have issues. In my defense I lived some wonderful years in New England and was spoiled with some very beautiful, WHITE Christmas'. Aside from the snow we would get into late April, I loved our snowy, icy winters there. I miss snow. I miss a

good

winter.

Decorating our home was so special this year because our kiddos are at such an excitable, curious age! Shire, especially, has been enjoying every little detail with her beautiful wide eyes. I love watching them just soak it all in. It melts my Momma's heart.

Welcome to our home...

Merry and Bright!

One of my goals this year was to spruce up our usual, dusty old Christmas decor with something fresh. No single item really 'goes' with another since much of what we have was generously passed down to us from both of our families. I have seen, (online and in my decor mags), a lot of absolutely stunning homes and rooms decked out in a particular color theme for Christmas. Oh, how I have "oohed" and "aahed"! But really, just the thought of dumping what we have to start fresh breaks my heart! We have so many memories tied in with our various Christmas decorations, no matter how quirky. It is truly a pleasure to display our eclectic mix , some items even spanning multiple generations! So, back to my goal: Use what we've got, but make the 'big picture' feel fresh.

And what says

fresh

better than fresh greens?!! I put greens all over our home in every spot I could think of. I seriously couldn't stop. It was addicting once I got started. If you do a faux Christmas tree, you can head over to your local Home Depot, (and I'm sure other places do this), and fill your car with all their trimmed branches from the bottoms of purchased trees, for

free.

Our home smells DIVINE

I just used a large lampshade to display all these longer branches. It's a big, messy arrangement...perfect for our home :)

Thank you, Annie Sloan! I have several of these empty paint cans and was excited for this whimsical way to recycle them! I kept the lids on and made a hole in the middle big enough to stick a few smaller branches through.

I don't like leaving

any

ornament out of the Christmas decorating line-up. I used shutters this year, (here as well as on our teal buffet, above), to hang all our glass ball ornaments. I kept the buffet more monochromatic, using all the golds, and brought the reds over here for a little shimmer over our collection of smaller trinkets.

These smaller guys are the things that can look like junk, to me. But, displayed all together on one shelf I think they come together well.

More greens :)

One of my favorite nativities I have ever seen. My grandparents gave this to us on our first Christmas married. With real straw on the floor and a packed clay roof, it doesn't glamorize the conditions our King was born into. It's a tender reminder of His humble life on earth with an unpretentious beginning.

A tour of our home would just not be complete without a shot of a baby gate in the background :)

Thank you for the candles, Grandma Livi! I love the festive touch they add to our glass jar shelf!﻿

I've been working hard in our basement, too, but the lighting isn't great and I am having camera issues, (no flash, yikes!), so I think I'll hold off on taking you down there ;)

Thank you for stopping by, as always! I appreciate all of you!

~Chelsea﻿

This post was originally featured on Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt!